After I Gave Him My Wolf, He Chose Another

The dungeon smelled of damp earth and despair. I huddled in the corner of the cell, my knees pulled to my chest, shivering not from the cold, but from the memory of Nicholas’s back as he walked away from me.

Footsteps echoed down the stone corridor. Heavy. Purposeful. I knew that rhythm. My heart gave a traitorous leap, even after everything.

Nicholas stopped in front of the iron bars. He was still wearing his ceremonial Alpha robes, the velvet dark against the torchlight. He didn’t unlock the door. He just stood there, looking at me like I was a stranger he’d once met in a dream.

"The Council wants an execution," he said. His voice was devoid of warmth, stripped of the love that used to make my toes curl. "Treason carries a death sentence, Dalia."

I scrambled to the bars, gripping the cold iron. "I didn't do it, Nick. You know I didn't. Blaire planted that device!"

He held up a hand, silencing me. The movement was sharp, dismissive. "It doesn't matter what I know. It matters what the pack sees. They see a weak, wolfless mate who endangered us all. They see a liability."

He took a breath, his jaw tightening. "But I am offering you mercy."

"Mercy?" I whispered, hope flickering like a dying candle.

"You have two choices," he said, his eyes hard as flint. "One: you publicly reject me as your mate. You admit your crimes, break the bond, and leave these lands as a Rogue. You never return."

My breath hitched. To be a Rogue was a death sentence in itself. Without a pack, without protection, I wouldn't last a week.

"And the second choice?" I asked, my voice trembling.

"You stay," he said, and for a second, I thought he meant as his mate. "As an Omega. You will serve the pack. You will serve... the new Luna. You will be stripped of your name and rank, but you will be alive."

The air left the room. He wanted me to watch. He wanted me to scrub the floors while Blaire sat on the throne I helped him build. He wanted me to serve the woman who framed me.

"You would do that to me?" I choked out, tears burning my eyes. "After I gave up my wolf for you?"

"I need the Royal Alliance, Dalia!" he snapped, his composure cracking for the first time. "I need an heir with strong blood! You are broken. You are empty. I cannot build a legacy on weakness."

He turned away, unable to look at the devastation on my face. "Make your choice by dawn. Or the execution stands."

He left me in the darkness, taking the last pieces of my heart with him.

***

Hours later, the lock clicked. I flinched, expecting the executioner. Instead, the heavy door swung open to reveal Marcus.

Nicholas's Beta looked haggard, dark circles bruising the skin under his eyes. He held a bundle of dark clothes in his hands.

"Marcus?" I breathed.

"Put these on," he hissed, tossing the bundle to me. "Hurry."

"What are you doing? Nicholas will kill you if he finds out."

"He's not the Alpha I swore an oath to anymore," Marcus growled, keeping watch at the door. "He's lost his way, Dalia. And I won't watch him murder his true mate for a crown."

I pulled the rough tunic over my head, my hands shaking. Marcus led me through the back tunnels, avoiding the guards he had likely bribed or distracted. The night air hit me like a physical blow when we emerged near the riverbank. The storm Nicholas had ignored was raging now, rain lashing down in sheets.

"There's a small boat tied under the willow," Marcus shouted over the wind. "The current is strong, but it will take you to the neutral territories. From there... you're on your own."

I looked at the churning black water. It was suicide. But staying was worse.

"Wait," I said. I grabbed a jagged rock from the ground and slashed my palm. Blood welled up, hot and metallic. I smeared it over the spare tunic Marcus had given me, then tore the fabric. I tossed the bloody rag onto the muddy bank, right where the water lapped at the shore.

"Let him think I drowned," I said, my voice hollow. "If he thinks I'm dead, he won't hunt me. And Blaire won't send assassins."

Marcus looked at the blood, then at me, sorrow etched into his features. "Goodbye, Luna Dalia."

"Just Dalia," I corrected softly. "I'm no one's Luna now."

I pushed the boat into the river. The current grabbed it instantly, spinning me away into the dark, violent night. I didn't look back at the Silver Moon pack house. I didn't look back at the home I had sacrificed my soul to protect.

***

I didn't remember the boat capsizing. I didn't remember the freezing water filling my lungs or the rocks that battered my body like a ragdoll.

I only remembered the pain.

When I opened my eyes, everything was white. Not the sterile white of a hospital, but a soft, glowing mist. I was lying on sand, coughing up water that tasted like mud and death.

"Easy, child." The voice was deep, vibrating through the ground beneath me.

I squinted against the harsh sunlight. A man stood over me. He was massive, radiating a power so intense it made the air ripple around him. His eyes were golden, like molten coins.

"Who..." I rasped, trying to sit up. Agony shot through my ribs.

"I am Alpha Jasper," he said simply. He didn't ask who I was. He didn't demand my rank. He knelt, scooping me up into his arms as if I weighed nothing. "You washed up on Shadow Valley land."

"Kill me," I whispered, my head lolling against his chest. "Just finish it. I'm a rogue."

"You are not a rogue," he murmured, walking steadily toward a cabin nestled in the trees. "I can feel it. There is a spark in you. Faint, buried deep... but burning."

He kicked open the door to the cabin. The scent of drying herbs and woodsmoke washed over me. An older woman with silver hair looked up from a mortar and pestle.

"Mother," Jasper said, laying me gently on a cot. "She's fading. Her spirit is locked."

The woman—Luna Catherine—rushed over, placing her hands on my forehead. Her touch was electric. "By the Goddess," she gasped. "Someone bound her wolf. They crushed it down until it nearly died."

"Can you save her?" Jasper asked. His voice held a strange urgency.

"I can break the bind," she said, her eyes glowing white. "But the awakening... it will be violent."

She began to chant. ancient words that sounded like the earth shifting. Heat surged through my veins, scalding and terrifying. It started in my chest, right where the emptiness had been for five years.

*Crack.*

My spine arched off the cot. A scream tore from my throat, raw and animalistic. It felt like my bones were being pulverized and knitted back together all at once.

"Hold her down, Jasper!" Catherine shouted.

Jasper's heavy hands pinned my shoulders, but the force inside me was growing, expanding, exploding. The dormant presence I had silenced for Nicholas was waking up. And she was furious.

Another crack echoed through the room. My vision went red.

*I am here,* a voice roared in my head, loud as thunder. *I AM HERE.*

The pain consumed me, and for the first time in forever, I wasn't alone in the dark.